The Heart of a Tiger
by Night of the Shade
Summary: My OC throughout all four movies brings out the heart and loving side of Diego. I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING!
1. Chapter 1

The bitter wind somehow managed to get under my white short double coat, piercing my skin and making me shiver as I trudged through the snow. I was a saber tooth tiger and I was there shivering in the snow. How pathetic. It was taking longer than expected to get to the migration herd. Apparently there's an ice age coming and everyone was mirgating to the south of the valley to get away from it. I was in a pack of other sabers but I was an outcast. I didn't fit in. I didn't belong with them. So I left; decided to migrate on my own. I sighed and stopped letting myself sink into the snow and peer down at the bottom of the hill that I was standing on. My stomach rumbled as I saw an antelope trotted through the snow alone. Acting on instincts, I crouched low in the snow and crawled slowly down the hill, my eyes locked on my prey. When I reached the bottom of the hill, I stopped and touched my stomach to the ground, waiting for the antelope to get into position. He was about five feet away from me when I growled and leaped from my hiding spot. The antelope lifted his head and looked at me before surprise even had time to register into his eyes. As I was in midair, ready to rake my claws down the side of my meal, a great force slammed into my left side, knocking me to the ground, letting my food escape. Roaring in frustration and anger, I scrambled to my paws and turned around to see a golden brown saber tooth tiger with a white underbelly and green eyes. He had broad muscular shoulders that connected to a strong back and slanted down into powerful hindquarters. I tried to ignore how handsome he was and focus on that he was one who made me lose my breakfast.

"What do you think you're doing?" I snapped at him.

"Getting my food." He snapped back. I bared my fangs at him.

"Your food? That was my kill." He laughed at me and turned his back on me before he started to walk away from me.

"Yeah. That would've been some kill. Your jump was too short. . . Kitty." Becoming more furious, I roared and leapt at the saber, landing on his back and digging my claws into his skin. He bellowed and started to roll over onto his back to knock me off but I was ready for that. Instead, I unlocked my claws from his skin and let his body roll underneath my paws and put pressure back onto my paws when he was on his back, his underbelly expose. I placed a paw on his chest and smirked down at him.

"Was my jump short then?" The saber growled and threw his head into my chest, knocking me back onto the snow and him landing on top of me.

"No. But your temper was." I snarled before pushing him off of me and getting to my paws and began to walk away from him. "Hey, where are you going?"

"Does it matter?"

"Well, I'm just curious. I mean, sabers don't really travel alone." I stopped and looked over my shoulder at him.

"Look who's talking."

"What? Me? Oh, I'm traveling with a mammoth and sloth to bring a human baby back to a herd. I'll be joining my pack at Half Peak."

"A mammoth?" My mouth dripped with saliva as I thought about the fattening meat. I hadn't had a mammoth since I was a cub.

"Yeah, odd mixture. But I'll be leaving soon. You should travel with me, I mean, us. You'll be safer and we'll get to end of the valley faster." I cocked my head to the side and thought about it for a moment before nodding once and walking over to the saber's side. We walked at the same pace, our shoulders barely touching each other. We walked in silence for a couple mintues before I broke the silence.

"Silvia."

"What?"

"Silvia. That's my name."

"Oh." We took a couple more steps. "Diego."


	2. Chapter 2

It didn't take long to meet up with Manny the Mammoth and Sid the sloth. Manny didn't take me joining the group too lightly but Sid was welcoming. I almost snapped his paw off after he tried to give me a hug but Diego stepped between us before I could do any damage. Diego told Manny that he and I would be leaving to join back with his pack after we returned the baby. I looked at him confusingly considering that I never said anything about joining his pack. I just wanted to get to the other side of the valley for the migration. Manny reluctantly agreed and he set the pace of the group, leaving me to travel at the back of the group by myself. We came across a three way fork and stopped, watching Diego looked from left to right to the middle and back again, trying to decide which way to take.

"You're lost aren't you?" Manny questioned Diego.

"No." Diego protested. "I know exactly where we are. This way." Diego took the lead and walked down the middle passageway. By the time we reached the end, a blizzard began to pick up, clouding our vision and slowing down our pace. I shivered violently, my teeth clicking against my fangs as I dropped behind the group even further. I dropped my head and headbutted the wind trying to push forward. I lifted my right paw and place it down and as soon as I did, I lost my footing and slipped, starting to fall on my right side. Before I could hit the ground, a weight pushed against my side and I looked up to see Diego supporting me against his shoulder. I stared into his eyes and started to hate myself for how easy it was to get lost in them. I shook my head and regained my footing, stepping away from him and looking away in shame.

"Thank you." I mumbled, not knowing if he could hear me over the howling wind.

"You're welcome." He nudged my shoulder to signal me to keep moving forward and I stayed close to him as possible without touching. The storm passed after a couple hours and Diego ran ahead to scout for the human tracks. He came back with a look of excitment of his face. "Hey, great news. I found a short cut."

"What do you mean a shortcut?" Manny asked, catching the baby with his trunk as he slipped from his head.

"I mean, faster than going the long way around."

"I know what a shortcut is." Diego nodded to a cave opening in the mountain.

"Look, slip through there and meet the humans at glaciar pass or take the long way and miss them."

"Through there? What do you take me for?"

"This time tomorrow, you could be a free mammoth. But don't worry, Manny, personally, I never get tired of peek-a-boo."

"Hey, Guys," Sid called out to us, coming up to us with two icicles in his hands. "Check this out." He put the two icicles on either side of his neck and dropped to the ground, playing dead.

"Sid, the tiger found a shortcut." Sid dropped the icicles and stood up.

"No, thanks, I choose life." Diego stalked up to Sid and bared his teeth.

"Then I suggest you take the shortcut." Diego growled.

"Are you threatening me?"

"Move, Sloth!" The roar of Diego's voice ripped through the air and echoed off the rocks on the mountain causing them to rumble.

"Way to go, Tiger."

"Move!" I shouted, leaping forward as the rocks began to fall. "Into the cave!" I ran, kicking up snow behind me, leaving Sid and Manny in the dust but Diego was right beside me. The boulders whistled down from the mountain peak and crashing into the ground causing it to shake beneath us.

"Silvia!" Diego yelled. "Look out!" I looked above me to see a boulder directly above. Diego barrled himself into me and knocking me into the cave as the boulders fell and blocked the entrance. As the boulders piled in the entrance, the ground stopped shaking. I climbed to my feet and turned away from Diego, not wanting to admit to myself that he helped me once again.

"I vote shortcut." Manny said, leading the way down the cave. I set out on a brisk pace and it was easy for Diego to keep up with me. I looked at him from the corner of my eyes, watching his shoulder blades move up and down, pulling and pushing his muscles underneath his bronze fur.

"Stay close; It's easy to get lost in here." His voice was deep and smooth with honey dripping from his tongue. My claws scrapped against the ice beneath my paws with every step I took. Walls of blue ice lurched up from the ground and wrapped around over top of us creating a tunnel. Diego jumped up to an ice ledge that was tall enough to put him at shoulder's height with Manny. I followed him, digging my claws into the ice to stop me from slipping.

"Would you keep up please?" Manny scolded Sid who was lagging behind. "It's hard enough to keep track of one baby." Something sounded behind me and I turned to see the baby sliding downhill on a track of ice and shoot right past Manny and Diego. We stood there in silence as we watched him slid over another hill and disappear. We yelled in fear and ran over to the ledge where the baby dropped, our hearts skipping beats when we saw the baby sliding down a tunnel of pure ice that twist and turned into nothing. I jumped down the tunnel after him with the others behind me. The wind whistled through my fur and ears over the yelling and screaming of Diego, Manny and Sid behind me. I unsheathed my claws to plant them into the ice to try to slow myself down but that only made it worse. As soon as my claws went into the ice, I lurched forward and did a front flip and landed on my back continuing to slide down the chute faster than what I was going before. The chute opened up to five individual tunnels and each one of us got thrown into a different one. Great. Not only was I stuck sliding down endless tunnels, I was stuck sliding down endless tunnels by myself. My tunnel ended and I slid up a ramp and got thrown into the air at the same time that the baby, Diego, Manny and Sid's chutes sent them into the air. The baby, Manny and Sid overlapped each other not hitting one another but Diego and I didn't have the same luck. We barreled right into each other and crashed to the ice below us, him landing on top of me. I let out an ooof with the extra weight on top of me squeezing the air out of my lungs. I tried to rake my claws against the walls of the tunnel this time but that had no effect. We exited the chute which put us right above Manny. Diego and I landed on his back and I dug my claws into his skin to hold me in place as we continued to race down the ice tunnel of doom. We hit a bump and I slid off of Manny and fell down on a on my own track of ice beside Manny and Diego with the baby directly in front of us. Manny grabbed the baby with his trunk just as Sid screamed. I looked ahead to see a solid wall of ice with no way around it. Sid slammed into creating a hold and I was next to go through. I grunted as the force hit me. Diego yelled as he barreled into the wall behind me and Manny behind him. A pile of snow landed on top of me and I jolted up right to shake the snow off as the baby laughed with amusement. Diego jumped out of the snow, adrenaline pumping through his veins.

"Whoa!" He yelled with excitement. "Whoo! Whose up for round two?" I let out a small smile, amused how a tough saber like him had a childish side but it didn't last long. He cleared his throat and looked away, leaving his childish side behind him. "Tell the kid to be more careful." Manny handed the baby to Sid and got up to lead the way out of the ice cave and into a stone cave with markings and drawings imprinted all over the walls, floor and ceiling. The small cave opened up to a even bigger cave with even more drawings. I looked in awe at the pictures noticing how they seem to make the light in this cave even brighter.

"Look, tigers." Sid said and I looked over to the left to see a pack of saber tooth tigers chasing down a herd of antelopes. The baby whined and Sid hushed him. "Oh, it's ok. The tigers are just playing tag with the antelopes. . . with their teeth." Diego smirked and walked up behind Sid.

"Come on, Sid. Let's play tag. You're it." Sid laughed nervously and walked away to the other side of the caves far away from Diego.

"Okay, okay, where are the sloths? You know you never see any sloths around here. Have you ever noticed? Oh, look, Manny, a mammoth."

"Oooh, someone pinch me." Manny said sarcastically.

"Hey, hey, this fat one looks just like you. Awww, and he's got a family. Oh and he's happy. Look he's playing with his kid." Diego and I walked over to the wall that Sid was staring at with Manny right beside us. I looked up at him and saw his face full of sorrow and full of sad memories as he stared at the painting of the two mammoths and baby mammoth. "See, Manny, that's your problem. That's what mammoths are suppose to do."

"Sid." Diego said, trying to shut him up after seeing the hurt on Manny's face.

"Find a female, have little baby mammoths-"

"Sid."

"What?"

"Shut up."

"But-" Sid started to protest but stopped himself when he saw the dispair that Manny was going through by looking at the painting. He reached out his trunk to touch the picture only to touch the baby's hand instead. Manny wrapped his trunk around the baby before picking him up and putting him on his back and walking out of the cave. Sid and I followed him with Diego right behind us.


	3. Chapter 3

"Wow, would you look at that?" Manny exclaimed as Glaciar Pass and Half Peak came into view. "The tiger actually did it. There's Half peak. Next stop, Glaciar Pass. How could I have ever doubted you?"

"Did you hear that, little fella?" Sid spoke to the baby. "You're almost home. My feet are sweating."

"Do we have to get a newsflash for every time your body does something?" Diego growled impatiently.

"He's doing it for attention." Manny said. "Just ignore him."

"No, seriously." Sid protested. "My feet are really hot." A rumbling sounded somewhere around us and we stopped to find the source of it.

"Tell me that was your stomach."

"Shh." Diego hushed him.

"I'm sure that it was just thunder." Sid said.

"Thunder that's below us?" I questioned him, focusing my ears down towards the ground as the rumbling sound got louder. A loud explosion sounded behind us and lava erupted straight and out of the ice. The ice began to crumble away from either sides of us, revealing lava directly below us. A bridge of ice stood between us and the other side that was safe from the lava. I sank my claws into the ice to steady myself as the ice fell in front of me, leaving me stranded on a thin slab of ice. Diego, Manny and Sid were already safely on the other side. "Diego!" Diego turned and looked at me in shock as he raced to the edge on his side.

"Silvia!" He cried. "Silvia, you got to jump." I shook my head and took a step back. My heart was racing with fear as the ice slab began to sway in the wind and with the force of the lava hitting up against it. "Silvia, I can't reach you and you can't stay there. You got to jump. I'll catch you. I promise." I looked over into his green eyes and found the truth of his promise in his eyes. I bowed my head and closed my eyes, trying to find the courage to jump. "Silvia, look at me." I barely lifted my eyes to make contact with his. "I promise." I took a deep breath and ran forward, kicking off from the edge with my hind legs to give me power. I leapt over the gap and looked down to realize that I was too far to the left of the other side. I felt claws dig into my side and I growled in pain but I was also grateful with the claws brought me back to the ground. I clashed into the ground and layed on my stomach gasping for breath, trying to return my heart to it's normal pace. "Are you okay?" I looked up at Diego and slowly nodded my head, finding comfort in his eyes.

"Thank you."

"I told you I'd catch you. Come on, let's keep moving." He helped me to my feet and I nuzzled his shoulder with my muzzle before trotting ahead to Manny and Sid.


	4. Chapter 4

As the night became to hit us, the snow began to fall harder and harder until it was enough to almost cloud my vision. The wind howled around us as we struggled to keep pushing forward.

"Guys, we got to get this kid out of the wind!" Manny yelled over the roaring wind. "How much further?"

"Three miles." Diego answered. I took the lead and led the herd to an opening of a cave. I entered first and as soon as I did, the wind stopped beating against me and my fur layed flat.

"We'll continue in the morning." I said, shaking the lose snowflakes from my fur. "If we keep going now, we'll kill the baby." I heard a scraping of rock against rock and I turned to see Sid carving a picture of himself on the wall of the cave.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm putting sloths on the map." Sid explained.

"Why won't you draw him realistic and draw him laying down?" Manny joked with him and Sid turned to glare at the mammoth.

"And make him rounder." Diego added. Manny took the rock from Sid with his trunk and drew a big circle around the stomach area of the picture. "Perfect."

"Haha." Sid said sarcastically, snatching the rock back from Manny. "I forgot how to laugh." He started to scribble out the picture when sparks shot out from the contact of the rock on stone. He did it again and the sparks landed on a pile of dry sticks causing them to erupt into flames. "I'm a genius." We huddled around the fire and Manny cradled the baby in his trunk, rocking him to sleep. I slipped away from the others and went to the edge of the cave and layed on the cold stone floor. I sighed heavily as I stared out into the blizzard. What was I doing here? What was I doing with a mammoth, a sloth, a baby and a saber tooth tiger? I didn't belong here. I belonged out there in the blizzard, wandering alone and lost.

"Hey, the fire's warmer than being all the way over here." I looked up and over my shoulder to see Diego walking over towards me. I laid my head back on my paws.

"I'm fine where I am." I muttered.

"Yeah, that's why you're shivering from your ears to the tip of your tail." It wasn't until he said something that I realized that I was shivering violently. I curled myself into a tighter ball to try to hide my shaking.

"I'm fine." It was silent for a moment before I felt a light weight coming down on my back. I looked over my shoulder to see Diego laying gently over me, his right leg resting beside mine and his left leg coming around my shoulders to pull me closer to him. I immediately felt warmth spread through my body. I rested my head back on my paws and Diego placed his chin on the back of my head. I sighed with content. "Thank you." He pulled me closer to him and I soon heard his soft breathing telling me that he was asleep. I closed my eyes and fell asleep to the soft rythm.

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"Maybe we shouldn't do this." Diego muttered harshly as we continued our journey to Glaciar's Pass the next morning.

"Why not?" I questioned him.

"Because if we save him then he'll grow up to be a hunter. And what do you think he'll hunt?"

"And maybe because we save him, he won't hunt us." Sid said.

"Yeah? And maybe he'll grow fur and a long skinny neck and call you mama."

"What's your problem?" I questioned him. He stopped and looked at me, realizing how harsh he was being.

"Nothing. Let's go. I'm freezing my tail off." He started walking again but slowly fell behind to the back of the group. We were approaching a tunnel that lead to Half Peak. I looked over my shoulder at him.

"Hey, Diego, you frozen back there?" He jolted out of his daydream and raced back towards us.

"Get down!" Manny, Sid and I stopped and looked at him questioningly. "Get down and follow me."

"What's going on?" Sid asked. Diego lowered his head and slightly turned away from us as he spoke, his voice full of shame.

"At the bottom of Half Peak. . . there's an ambush waiting for you."

"What?!"

"What do you mean ambush?" Manny questioned him. It was silent for a second as Manny and I thought about it. My heart skipped a beat as I came to the conclusions.

"You set us up." I breathed and Diego drooped his head even lower at the sound of my voice.

"It was my job. I was supposed to get the baby but then-"

"You brought us home for dinner." Manny snapped.

"That's it." Sid exclaimed. "You're out of the herd." My sadness for betrayal quickly turned into rage and I prounced on Diego knocking him to the the ground on his back, pinning him down, his green eyes pleading for mercy as I bared my teeth at him.

"I'm sorry." He apologized.

"No, you're not." I growled, digging my claws into his skin. "Not yet."

"Listen, I can help you."

"Stay close, guys, we can fight our way out."

"You can't. The pack's too strong. You have to trust me." I dug my claws deeper into his skin making him shift uncomfortably beneath me.

"Trust you? Why in the world would we trust you?"

"Because I'm your only chance." I stared down at him, seeing my reflecting blue eyes in his eyes. I started to realize that he was right. Diego was our only chance of getting out of here alive. I sheathed my claws and reluctantly stepped off of him so he could climb to his paws.

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I followed behind Diego, dragging my paws through the soft snow as new flakes fell and blended into my snow white fur. Diego led the way to two stone peaks with ledges sticking out from them. I looked past Diego's shoulders and saw four saber tooth tigers on each of the ledges. I looked at each one of them and placed the names that Diego told me to each of them. Soto must be the one on the top ledge, pack leader spot. He looked similar to Diego but was more slender. Then there was Cholo, the big fat one. Sokka was the other average size saber with Zeke being the smallest and skinnest of the four.

"Hello, Ladies." Diego gloated condescendingly at the pack as he stepped onto the stone floor of the pillars. The pack turned on us and Sokka began to laugh.

"Hey, look who decided to show up." He chuckled and Diego bared his teeth at him.

"Diego," Soto's voice was rough and wearly but it held a lot of anger and violence to it. "And who is this." Soto leapt off his ledge to circle around me. I bit back a growl and stopped myself from swatting him away from me.

"This is Silvia." Diego intoduced me. "I met her along the way. She has no pack and I offered her a place in ours."

"Just another mouth to feed."

"You could think of it like that. Or you could think of it as another set of paws to take down the mammoth." It was silent as Soto thought it over.

"Fine." He returned back to his ledge and stared down at us. "I was beginning to worry about you."

"No need to worry. In about two minutes, you'll be satisfying your taste for revenge."

"Very nice."

"I see the sloth!" Zeke said in a jittery voice. "And he's got the baby!" Diego and I walked to the edge of the stone slab and saw Sid pushing through the snow with a bundle in his arms. Zeke paced impatiently on his ledge.

"Don't give away your positions until you see that mammoth. He's the one that we have to surprise."

"You want to maul something, don't you, Zeke?" Diego whispered to Zeke and he nodded his head furiously.

"I wanna maul." Zeke whined.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Zeke roared and charged off his ledge after Sid with Cholo and Sokka right behind him.

"No, I said wait for the mammoth!" Soto yelled after his packmates and Diego just shrugged his shoulders as Soto jumped into the snow and raced after the pack. Once the pack was out of sight, Diego nudged me in the shoulder with his head and I started running towards the spot where Manny would be with Diego right behind me. My paws glided gracefully over the snow barely leaving a pawprint behind me. I bolted up and over a snow mound and behind a stone wall to see Manny knock Cholo, Sokka and Zeke off a ledge.

"Ok, follow me. We'll pick up Sid and get out of here while we can." Just as we were turning around and walking away, a weary voice sounded behind us.

"Come on, Diego, let's bring this mammoth down." We turned to see Soto stalking towards Manny, body crouched to the ground, ready to prounce. Diego took his spot beside Soto and I looked at him in horror. Betrayed twice by him in one day? I stood on the sidelines not knowing what to do. What if this was part of Diego's plan? What if he was just acting like he was on Soto's side? But what if he wasn't? What if he really wanted to bring Manny down? Just before I made up my mind on what Diego was going to do, Diego made my mind for me. He stepped between Manny and Soto, facing his pack leader. "What are you doing?"

"Leave the mammoth alone." Cholo and Sokka appeared on either side of Soto.

"Fine, I'll take you down first." Soto and Diego circled each other while the Sokka turned on me and Cholo went after Manny. I bared my teeth at Sokka, my fur raised on end and my claws unsheathed. Sokka leapt at me and I charged forward, shooting under his body while he was in midair and scraping my claws across his stomach. I shot out from underneath and turned to face him who roared in frustration. I swiped my paw out, raking my claws down his face and knocking his head into the stone wall beside him, knocking him out. I turned around to the other fight and then wished I hadn't. I saw Diego leap in front of Manny just as Soto was leaping at him. So instead Soto's claws digging into Manny, his claws dug into Diego.

"Diego!" I cried out, my paws frozen in place and my heart frozen in mid beat. Just as Soto was about to finish Diego off, a baby's cry sounded in the distant and I looked to see Sid holding the baby. As Soto's focus was off of Diego and on the baby, Manny slammed his tusks into Soto's side, knocking him into a stone wall and causing a cluster of icicles to fall and land on Soto, killing him. I growled at Cholo and Sokka and they ran away, tails tucked between their legs. I jogged over to Diego and layed beside him by his head, pressing my nose to the top of his head. Manny and Sid joined me on his other side.

"We. . . we were some team, huh?" Diego breathed, struggling to speak.

"Were?" Manny questioned. "Come on. We're still a team."

"I'm, uh, sorry that I set you up."

"Ah, you know me, I'm too lazy to hold a grudge." Sid said, setting the baby down in front of Diego. The baby walked to Diego and pressed his hand to Diego's nose.

"Hey, knock it off, Squirt. You gotta be strong. You gotta take care of Manfred and Sid and Silvia. Exspecially Sid."

"Come on, you can lick this. You're a tiger. Look, I'll carry you. Come on, what'd you say? Come on, Diego, come on. Tell him that he's going to be okay, Manny." Manny remained silent.

"Listen, you have to leave me here. If those humans get through the pass, you'll never catch them."

"You didn't have to do that." Manny finally spoke.

"That's what you do in a herd." I stood up and place my paw gently on his shoulder. "You gotta go with them, Sil. Cholo, Sokka and Zeke are still out there. You gotta protect them." I wanted to protest against him but I knew that he was right and I didn't trust my voice to remain strong. The baby reached out to touch Diego again but Manny wrapped his trunk around him and pulled him away before he could. I touched my nose to Diego's ear and breathed in his scent one last time before turning and leading Manny and Sid towards Glaciar's Pass. I stopped and looked over my shoulder at Diego's body in the snow. I raised my head and let out a roar of honor the same way that I did when I saw my parents die. I lowered my head and let out another soft roar before continuing my walk, leaving Diego behind us.

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My paws seem to get heavier and heavier with each step I took away from Diego. I just wanted to turn around and run back to him and curl up beside him, hoping that he would get better but I had to keep pressing on to Glaciar's Pass. We were almost there. Two giant walls of ice stood side by side with a narrow passageway between them. We made it up and over the snow hill and entered the passageway to see a herd of humans halfway through it. One man in the back turned to look at us. I stayed behind Manny as we walked towards him so I didn't look like a threat. Manny stopped in front of him and reached behind him with his trunk and pulled the baby off his shoulders. Manny set the baby on the ground and he stumbled towards the man who swept him up in his arms and hugged him. We turned to walk away from the herd when I heard the baby cry out. We stopped and turned back around and saw the baby walking towards us again. Sid picked him up and hugged him.

"Don't forget about us." Sid said, holding back tears. "Okay?" Manny took the baby away from Sid with his trunk.

"We won't forget about you." Manny muttered before handing the baby back to the man. The man bent down and picked up a necklace and hung it over one of Manny's tusk. The baby waved bye to us as the herd led the way out of the passageway.

"Bye. Goodbye. Bye."

"Sid."

"Bye. Goodbye." The baby covered his eyes with his hands and then dropped his hands. "That's right. Where's the baby?"

"Come on, Sid. Let's head south."

"Bye."

"Save your breath, Sid." A warm chill ran down my spine as I recognized that voice. "You know humans can't talk." Sid and I both quickly turned on our heels to see Diego standing on the snow mound.

"Diego?!" I stood tall and proud, my eyes gleaming with desire and my tail wagging back and forth with happiness. "You're okay!"

"Nine lives, baby!" Sid rushed to Diego before I could, tackling Diego to the ground and wrapping his arms around his neck. He stood up and punched Diego in the shoulder, making him cry out in pain.

"Ah! I could kiss you!" He kissed Diego several times on the head before Diego was able to pull away from him with horro stuck on his face.

"Welcome back, partner." Manny greeted him. "Want a lift?"

"No, thanks." Diego declined. "I got to save whatever dignity I got left."

"You're hanging out with us now, buddy, dignity got nothing to do with it." Sid said. "But I'll take that lift."

"Yeah, climb aboard." Manny said as Sid scrambled up Manny's leg to his back. I saw my chance and raced forward, my paws unable to hold back their excitment anymore. I tried to skid to a halt before I collided into Diego but the snow had no friction and I skidded directly in front of Diego, my nose pressing against his. I stared into his green brown eyes as they were wide with surprise. I quickly got up and backed away slowly, looking away and hanging my head in shame.

"Sorry," I muttered, avoiding Diego's gaze.

"No, it's fine." Diego said. I raised my head and looked at him with confidence and he stepped forward to press his nose to mine. I smiled, feeling a warm feeling spead throughout my body. It was him who pulled away and I joined his left side and pressed up against him as we started our journey to the south.

"This is going to be the best migration ever." Sid exclaimed. "I'm telling you, I'm going to show you all of my favorite watering holes. You know this whole ice age thing is getting old. You know what I could go for? Gobal warming."

"Keep dreaming." Diego laughed. I was paying no attention to what Sid was saying. I was too busy paying attention to the saber tooth tiger right next to me. To Diego. To my mate.


End file.
